Tuesday, November 6, 2012

It's day four (if we're going by my whacked out count for this year's NaNo), and my tip of the day is somewhere along the lines of yesterday. It's to read a book.

Er, now please sit down. Do not stir up any plot bunnies and start ranting and raving about word count. Chill. It's the fourth day. Yes. I know that. But there's nothing that says you can't sit down and read a bit of inspiration to keep your first week of writing shooting along the railroad tracks. I hope the words are coming along splendidly for you, and if not, then I hope that they will come sooner than you are expecting. This reading trick of mine tends to work quite splendidly if you're kind of unsure about how you're doing.

Today, if you' don't feel like writing (again!), then read something. It will stimulate your creative brain cells to start working on the new "problem" and it will present fresh, original solutions that in turn, can likely be adapted or applied to your present Nano. Keep an open mind and look for connections. Maybe it's something about the first plot point or the characters, just keep it in mind and think about it. Read some "stuff" and let your Nano stew in it for a day. You'll be surprised how many words can come out from a well-prepared mind.

As for me, when I want to read, well. I do. Especially if it's during NaNo and I'm worried about slowing down, getting bored or not having the right "mood" to write.

My favorite author of all time, for Christian/Inspirational Mystery is the wonderfully talented Dee Henderson. Whenever I hit a stuck point in my writing, I always pull out one of her books and read it from cover to cover. It never fails to remind me why I'm writing and why I want to write. She does such a wonderful job crafting her worlds and characters, that I can help but feel awed and thrilled seeing it from both a writer's POV and a reader's POV and think "Wow, I want to write like that."

Today, Amazon is giving away free Kindle downloads of one of her books in the O'Malley series. Dee is my inspiration for writing. She crafts worlds that are so complex, without losing detail, suspense and page-turning action in every single chapter. There's plenty of emotion and family--if you've never read her before, I highly recommend her. This book is actually the first book of hers that I ever read--and I was hooked from page one, after all, how many mysteries start out with a hostage negotiator as the main character? Right. I thought so. Give it a try and let me know what you think. (Also remember that you don't need to have a kindle to download this. Amazon has free reading kindle apps for Windows, Mac, your mobile devices, etc.)

As for Nano--well, I had one of those lovely new ideas smack me over the head while I was in class today. Hmm. I churned out a few thousand words on that, so that I can focus on my NaNo tonight...yeah. I did. I really, actually did. We'll see how well that works out.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Ah, welcome to my day three post on day four...or five, actually, if you're counting. It's past midnight, so I'm not. So don't. ^_^'

It's been a slow day today. You know the kind.

Lots of things happening, drama everywhere, school and work tangling up with each other. You know, that kind of a day.

Guess what? I didn't really write much.

No, really. I didn't. I made up most of my word count for the week, yesterday, so I don't have to worry about it when I hit a day like this. I know that I'll reach a day within the first week where I really don't feel like writing much---and I won't have the time to write either, so I write extra whenever I can.

This is one of those days.

If you're starting late or didn't write today and you're freaking out---take my advice. Don't. Just take it in stride. It's not the end of the world if you didn't make your word count goal today. It's not the end of NaNo if you miss one day or two or a week, even, as long as you are dedicated to getting your story out, the words will follow.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

So, it's day 2. Well, day 2 was last night, but never mind that. How'd it go? Did you have fun? That's the most important thing.

NaNoWriMo is usually the best thing to spark your creative gears and make writing "fun" again. Sometimes it is far too easy to get caught up in things like, whether you spelled that right or if X,Y, Z actually exists in your fantasy world and if there's actual documentation and tada, you're successfully off track and off chasing down a plot thread you don't really need to be worrying about.

One of the most common "stuck points" this early in NaNoWriMo usually has to do with either your internal editor or your restlessness on simply sitting down and hammering the words out.

Hmm.

So what do you do?

Well, what I do is buckle down and find a few wordsprints I can get involved in. If there aren't any takers at the moment, then I fill a cup of with steaming hot tea and I write until the temperature is "drinkable". Surprisingly, I type more in those little short bursts than I might sitting all day in front of the computer screen.

If your editor is giving you a headache, then turn off your spellcheck and grammarcheck in your writing program. If you have to stare at the screen, change your text and screen colors to the same so you can't see what you're writing, but you can see that you're making progress.

Some folks like to use Dr. Wicked's writing lab, Write or Die. If it helps, us it. Make the most of the tools available to you during NaNoWriMo. Talk to your ML. Get in touch with your fellow wrimos. Check out the NaNoWriMo videos and peptalks.

Then when you've spent a nice chunk of time on it, sit down, put your hands on the keyboard and start writing. For all you know, if you don't write out a few hundred words or so of pure rambly junk, you can't get to that really emotional scene with the action-packed fight about to happen.

Give yourself a break. It's the first weekend. There's plenty of time and plenty of options.

Friday, November 2, 2012

But the chances of me posting last night with ten minutes to midnight were pretty slim, so I figured I'd make up for it today and the chances are, I'll likely post with a day's lag in between of everything. Meh. We'll see.

So, how's it going?

If you were waiting for my usual nano hype this year, I'm afraid most of my hyper-ness has been in Real Life and not quite on the Web. I am now getting back into my "cyberlife" a little bit, so you'll see hints of it on my FB fan page and my twitter, as well as, of course, My Nano profile.

For those of you catching up, 2012 marks my 7th year participating in NaNoWriMo and my 3rd year as a NaNoWriMo Municipal Liasion for my area, the TN : Elsewhere group.

It's already shaping up to be a good month, filled with the kind of creative energy that's just begging to be released. I hope your first day was wonderful and wordy.

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About

Sara is an Indie Author writing both inspirational Fiction and Faith-filled Fantasy. She is a graduate of the Christian Writer's Guild and holds a B.A. in English from state university. She has written over two-hundred short stories and is published in anthologies, inspirational newsletters and e-zines.